Campaign Addicts Now Confront the Morning After

At age 53, Anne Summers discovered a susceptibility she never knew she had. She was an election junkie.

Her affliction started with late-night news programs, then progressed to incessant Internet surfing. It culminated in door-to-door campaigning for Sen. Barack Obama near her home in Fairfax County, Va. "Addiction wouldn't be too strong a word," she says.

So today, Dr. Summers will experience a sense of emptiness familiar to recovering addicts. Never mind that she is a soccer mom, wife and full-time cardiologist. The election is over.

A supporter wears buttons for the GOP presidential ticket during a rally in Thorndale, Pennsylvania. The McCain campaign viewed Pennsylvania as a must-win state in his bid for the presidency against Sen. Barack Obama.
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The end of the most-followed presidential campaign in recent years will leave many Americans feeling lost, even if their candidate won. The 2008 race provided drama and suspense to a nation hooked on reality television, mystery novels and Hollywood epics.

Arin N. Reeves, a Chicago-based diversity consultant, says she lost hours of sleep to late-night cravings for new campaign developments. For her, the vice-presidential picks were among the many suspenseful episodes -- with the emergence of Gov. Sarah Palin deliciously surprising. "Week after week after week the story just kept getting better," she says.

Seldom in American history has a presidential campaign offered such compelling narratives: The rise and fall of former first lady Sen. Hillary Clinton. The come-from-behind primary performance of war-hero Sen. John McCain. The emergence of Barack Obama, the biracial Harvard Law star raised by a single mother. The moose-slaying Sarah Palin, who proudly embraced her unwed pregnant teenager. The father, Sen. Joe Biden, who raised his young sons alone following the death of his wife and daughter in a car accident.

On the morning after the election, however, it's as if "The Sopranos," "American Idol" and "Desperate Housewives" all ended on the same night.

Sister Act

Kathy Gilbert, a 62-year old educator in Grand Rapids, Mich., took to making twice-daily phone calls to her equally obsessed sister in Chicago. Campaign gossip was a way for the two to connect. "I've just been hooked on it night and day. It's definitely aberrant behavior for me," she says. "What now?" She compares her current state to being on an emotional roller coaster. "I think I may need to join Politics Anonymous."

Until this election cycle, Pamela Miller, 50, manager of a medical clinic in Phoenix, had never done anything more than vote. But after serving as a telephone volunteer in recent months for the McCain campaign, she's now feeling withdrawal pains -- even as she was anticipating a McCain victory Tuesday.

Election Day

Issues, of course, underpinned interest in the race. Worries about economic upheaval, war and health-insurance coverage stoked passions, as did the debate over tax plans. But to a great extent this became a competition not only between candidates but narratives, giving Tuesday's vote an Academy Awards quality: Who had the best story? The disparate tales of Sens. McCain and Obama inspired people in a way that differed from, say, the 2000 election, which featured two candidates born to the political aristocracy.

The narratives in this contest created intrigue across party lines. Dr. Reeves, for instance, is an Obama supporter. But her fascination with the campaign intensified after the Republican vice-presidential nomination of a woman whose infant son has Down syndrome. "After Sarah Palin, women started talking about abortion very differently, openly, as if her candidacy were an entree into forbidden grounds," says Dr. Reeves, who advises law firms and legal departments on issues of diversity.

For Miles McMillin, a corporate communications manager in greater Kansas City, the addictive habits began early in the morning, with the "Today Show." National Public Radio gave him a second fix during his commute to work, allowing him to soak up details about each candidate's schedule and speaking engagements. At night, he fed his cravings with a buffet's worth of cable-news helpings.

"After Wednesday night, I guess I'm going to have to reintroduce myself to my kids," says the Obama supporter.

Political Futures Markets

The end of the campaign won't leave its addicts utterly bereft. Post-election, there will be no shortage of questions to analyze: Did pollsters get it right? Was the loser's concession delivered with grace? Who will the winner appoint to his cabinet?

For extreme cases, solace is already available in the form of political futures markets. Intrade, a self-described "prediction market," is accepting bids for the 2012 presidential nominations, featuring Sens. Obama and Clinton on the Democratic side and five Republican possibilities, including Gov. Palin and former Rep. Newt Gingrich.

But just as a campaign's end can promote healing among political parties, abstinence can be healthy for political junkies. In recent weeks, when a chiropractor diagnosed Mrs. Gilbert with "computer elbow," she told him, "It's not going to heal until after the election," when she stops checking the Internet for campaign updates.

Ms. Reeves says the campaign close will enable her to stop biting her tongue at soccer matches when less-informed parents -- meaning those who didn't stay up past midnight dissecting polls -- start talking politics. "People would think it was a little weird if they knew how much I know," she says.

Sleep, a casualty for some addicts, will make a comeback. "I'm just tired," says Vikki Watson. The Kansas City-area communications consultant stayed up late so many nights watching cable-TV pundits that at one point she told herself, "You've got to stop this. You're going to drive yourself insane."

As chief of sleep medicine at Loma Linda University Medical Center in California, Ralph Downey III advises patients to stay away from late-night television and Internet use. "But unfortunately, doctors don't always take their own advice," says Dr. Downey. He confesses he was drawn to check his computer for campaign updates as many as three times a night.

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